Book Description
for Everyone Wants to Know by Kelly Loy Gilbert
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
Honor Lo, 15 (Chinese American/white), grew up in the spotlight thanks to a reality TV show about her family. Although the show has ended, her parents and two older sisters continue to seek the spotlight and monetize their fame. Honor and her twin brother, Atticus, prefer a low profile, while their older brother finds their past toxic and has an on-again, off-again relationship with the family. When their parents announce a separation, Honor, who suffers from anxiety and panic attacks, is devastated. Her pain is amplified when online speculation and gossip, rampant and hard to ignore, reveals that someone close has betrayed her confidence. But more than anything, Honor wants to reunite her family. She pins her hopes on a trip to celebrate hers and Atticus’s birthday, only to discover their dad has been seeing a much younger woman. Then Honor’s sister Skye, an online influencer who’s just started college, shares that she’s been diagnosed with cancer. It’s news that changes everything. As the family pulls together to support Skye during her treatment, online rumors continue to fly in this page-turning story that also sees Honor navigating how and whom to trust as she seeks to establish connections at a new school. A book that’s both entertaining and thought-provoking invites readers to contemplate big ethical questions about the behavior of online “influencers,” including adults who put their children on display, as well as followers who freely judge and speculate about their lives. (Age 13 and older)
CCBC Choices 2024. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2024. Used with permission.